Pennsylvania and West Virginia (June 2014)

Written by ceddammit

In the summer of 2014, I went on my official Pennsylvania State Vacation. This trip consisted almost entirely of amusement parks and museums, so I didn’t end up taking many pictures. However, this was a road trip for me, and driving back to Charlotte from Pittsburgh took me across West Virginia. I actually took more pictures during a span of a couple hours in West Virginia than I did during the entire week in Pennsylvania. Yet we’ll start with Pennsylvania, where my first night’s stay was at Conneaut Lake:

Historic hotel Conneaut, nestled between Conneaut Lake and Conneaut Lake Park
I had the “bay window” room just above the veranda.
Sunrise over Conneaut Lake
This portable roller coaster was called the Toboggan and was made by Chance Rides of Wichita, Kansas. I got to ride a couple of these when I was young, but they are hard to find these days.
Spooky tree
Conneaut Lake Resort, Pennsylvania (photographed June 2014)

Conneaut Lake Park was my main reason for choosing Pennsylvania for my 2014 summer vacation. Y’see Conneaut was home to the Blue Streak*, a wooden roller coaster that was built in 1938, and that was under threat of demolition in 2014. I’m glad that I went when I did, because the Blue Streak was a really fun old coaster, but it was indeed demolished a few years later. And not without reason. If you’ve ever ridden an old wooden coaster, you no doubt remember being pulled up the first hill by a lift chain. The section of track you are on while being pulled up is completely straight. Except on Blue Streak, where a significant “dip” had developed in the left rail – never a good sign. And that wasn’t the only symptom of deterioration. Like many coasters of its era, the Blue Streak passed through a winding wooden “tunnel” on its way from the station to the lift hill. On multiple occasions, the train just stopped in the tunnel. There weren’t any brakes in the tunnel; the thing just slowed to a halt on its own accord. When this happened, the ride operator had to get out and push. No, seriously! Each time it stopped in the tunnel, the ride op left the control panel, walked down into the tunnel, and physically pushed on the last car until it got to rollin’ again.

*Side Note: “Blue Streak” was once a common name for roller coasters. According to RCDB, there have been at least 14 roller coasters named either Blue Streak or Blue Streak Racer. Almost all of them were built before 1940. Only one coaster remains operating under the name of Blue Streak. It’s located at Ohio’s Cedar Point, where it was built in 1964. I’ve ridden this one, too, and seem to recall it being a pretty average woodie.

And now for a little more of Pennsylvania:

Farm land, somewhere in Pennsylvania
When I found out this street exists, I had to rock down to it!
Cool-looking building near Electric Ave.
A few random pics from southern Pennsylvania (photographed June 2014)

My next stop was Lakemont Park in Altoona, PA (not Altoona, IA, where I worked as a ride operator) to ride the world’s oldest roller coaster. Given its age and simplicity, I just wanted to ride this thing for the history of it. I expected it to be quite tame by today’s standards. I was surprised to find it was actually pretty fun! I didn’t get any pictures of the ride itself, but here’s my souvenir ride ticket:

I rode this in June 2014, when it was 112 years old!
Statistics from the back of my Leap The Dips ride ticket

Driving through West Virginia on the way home, I crossed (then stopped to check out) the New River Gorge Bridge – i.e., the bridge from the West Virginia state quarter:

Some reading material for ya
Up close and personal with the New River Gorge Bridge
Previously, you had to drive a winding road to the bottom of the gorge, where you would cross the river on this bridge.
Not a great pic, but others were worse
To provide a sense of scale, here’s a semi crossing the New River Gorge Bridge.
Rapids on New River
A tiny stream trickling its way to the bottom of the gorge
New River Gorge Bridge and vicinity, West Virginia (Photographed June 2014)

That appears to be all for today. Come back next Thursday for some random scenes along the Colorado Front Range. Because I said so, that’s why!

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